Sorry to hear that naman. The state of care is deplorable and has been getting increasingly so. I think we can look forward to even more cuts if our Dear Leader goes forward with privatizing everything. 

Hope you are able to find someone. 

Hi Naman - sorry to hear of your disappointment.  It is much the same here in Ontario.  HomeCare Services have been cut drastically, and demand for them is very high.  We hear in the news about how services are available, but that's often just not the case when it comes right down to it.  Frustrating for sure.   Some communities have alternate services - private hire, volunteers, Seniors for Seniors, that sort of thing.  Is there a Senior's Directory for your area?  If so, I hope the HomeCare folks provided you with it. 

Thanks Corolla, That is what I am starting to find out.

Namana and I are getting rather forgetful and we registered ourselves for a presentation at the Delta Hotel on Tuesday evening, on the importanceof a healthy diet. Then Namana became upset about something else and we were unable to attend. 

The presentation was put on by the Alzheimer's society. It seems that in addition to missing out on the presentation on diet we also missed out on the outreach.

The reason Namana was so upset is that she had just had a ferocious argument with her daughter over money.

I haven't had any experience at all of Home Care.  Our parents coped well with a little help from family and friends and died quite quickly.  My own friends who are aging are paying someone to come in to clean the house - same as my working adult kids. 

Could you maybe expand on the topic a bit?  What did you apply for - help with housecleaning, shopping and meals? personal cleanliness and medication issues?    

Sorry to hear that you have arguments with an adult kid about money.  That must be very upsetting.  My kids have never expressed any curiosity about our money - and made it clear that their money wasn't our business and they weren't talking about it. 

15 years ago here in Saskatchewan, when my parents were getting home care it seeemed to provide hands on help and also counselling and the staff included authorities on social work, dieticians, household budgeting and nursing and housekeeper workers -more or less- anyway I am not sure of the details. But there was quite a bit of help provided by or co-rdinated with home care. It seems that the budget has been reduced to the extent that nursing care is about all that they can now provide.

Home care is intended for assistance with activities of daily living, primarily related to health.

Things like post op dressings, assistance with medications, assistance to have a daily bath, some meals.

For my mother prior to her moving to a seniors residence , we hired a companion person.  She then helped with meals, meds, shopping, laundry in small ways.

Naman - is there some way you can access these types of things?  Counselling at a Mental Health centre, household maintenance from a paid person, food advice from a dietician within the health care system?   I confess I'm a bit puzzled about how these types of services are paid for.  When an older person has a good pension income they can probably afford to pay for services.  What happens with those on a very low income? 

When we had a parent needing help we did a lot ourselves, friends and family offered what they could and we/she paid for someone to do the rest.  In her final days she lived with us so meals ween't a problem - nor the ordinary everyday things like housecleaning and laundry.  Her mind was still alert and she was able to handle her own meds right up to the end. 

I thought home care had to be paid for?  I'm fairly clueless on the matter, my great grandma had home care but I didn't know about all the details.  Is it subsidized?  Maybe it was a private company that was used for her.  I was also under the impression that home care was just for direct medical care.  No idea that they used to provide everything you listed Naman!  I wish you luck in finding all the support you need.

Sorry to hear about the argument.  Is it possible your daughter is just having issues dealing with you guys moving (and having to deal with the fact you're older) and it came out as an argument about money?  Hopefully there won't be another argument any time soon!

Hi Naman,

I have discovered the same with care for my Dad.

We looked at his finances though and he can afford to pay for things, so it has helped. The problem is that he won't often pay for them...more about admitting needing help.

i wish he had your insight into the recognition of need and proactive approach to getting it.

I don't know much about your area, so can't help much, but meals on wheels has been really good for us.

I think that it is about time to end this thread. I am pretty much in agreement with the above comments and I was already moving on to finding help from private counsellors which seems to be working out ok so far.

But I thought I might have a little rant about the situation here at WonderCafe while I am in the prosess of moving on to finding help from private sources. 

No use whipping a dead horse. On the other hand it can't hurt none neither.

Any one care to join me over a cup of tea? We will be moving on to discussing dead horses rather than Namana and my predicament which as I said is being resolved at least with a little luck it will be resolved.

heh naman, why don't you join us in the thread "room for all"...always a virtual cup of tea ready for the offering

Sure Naman. What kind of tea is brewing this morning?

If you like, you can bring the tea over to the Room in Relationships or the word games (green and spring) in Social.

Ha ha ha. Great minds think alike, Pinga!

I am thinking about starting a new thread relating my interaction with the Alzheimer's society.

On my way back from there I noticed that there is no point in even thinking about stopping to whip the dead horse because the coyotes have only left a few bones, so home care is pretty much out of my mind. The few bones that are left can serve as a grave marker rather than a whipping post.

Naman,

I find your last post perplexing.........

Is there more that you would like to add?

No, I was just saying that govenment sponsored home care is a dead issue and we are moving on. -and not still wanting to come back and whip the dead horse.

Hi Naman,

I'm sorry I missed this thread until now...not to beat the dead horse again, but...I have a friend who does some errands and light housework for a senior in her neighbourhood. It's not an "official" job. Perhaps you can find some help like that by placing an add in the paper. You should be careful though. You might want to get some help with screening applicants just to be safe. You attend a church, don't you? Maybe they can help find someone for you...perhaps there is a young person there who can help out for a few hours a week. If you need more extensive care, it might not be the best idea. I'm sorry the funding has been cut for these services. It really is a sad state of affairs we're heading into.

At the same time as governments are cutting back on hospital services and nursing homes have waiting lists, it seems they are cutting back on all sorts of home support. 

20 some years ago I had bowel surgery - big time.   I was kept in the hospital for ten days, then, even though my sister had come to look after me, they made arrangements for a nurse from extra-mural to visit me every second day, and  as soon as my sister left, they had a homemaker come in for two hours a day on alternate days.  This continued for several weeks until I was well enough to manage on my own with my husband coming home from work every day.  No direct charge to us - it was covered by medicare and cheaper and more pleasant for me than hospital care for even part of that period would have been.

Recently a friend of mine had similar surgery, but a bit more extensive.  And she is 30 years older than I was then.   She was kept in the hospital a shorter while and sent home to her apartment where she lives alone - no care provided, except when an equally elderly sister would come.  A few days later she was back in the hospital.  That was a week ago.   She's still in the hospital; I hear that she is not doing well.  A few extra days in hospital, a couple of weeks of home care, and she might be on the mend.  And it would have been cheaper for the government in the long run.   Cut backs are playing with people's lives.  

'We can't afford it."   no,  we can't afford not to.

Sometimes people are sent home earlier because of shortages but mostly it is be cause surgeries and much quicker, less invasive, smaller incisions, less anesthetic required and hence for most people less time in hospital.

Surgery that 2 decades ago was major and required 2 weeks in hospital are now often done in day surgeries and outpatient clinics.

On the other hand, patients more than ever need an advocate to argue for them.  We always did need the stable, reasonable person who asked questions and made requests, but even more so now.  Acute care surgical beds are in high demand and the pressure is on everyone to push patients out.

That is when the friend/advocate needs to demand visits, VON, home care.......

I hope your friend is doing better.

in general, for all patients, the quicker you are out of a hospital the better.  Because they are full of sick people the chances of picking up an infection are significant,

and one of the SuperBugs, lastpointe

unfortunate Lastpointe, for a bowel resection, the patient needs tubes to drain the stomach until the surgery heals enough that the bowels begin to function again.  Another tube to drain the bladder.  Other tubes for introvenous feedings, and for blood transfusions (in my friend's case).   And she lived alone.  I don't know the whole story.  I do know she was so bloated I only knew her by the bed number but the tubes were out and she was starting to improve.  And two days later I heard that she was home.  Then back in the hospital.  And now we are waiting and praying.  The last I heard, yesterday, she 'not doing well'.   I have no idea what the outcome will be, or if it would have been any better if she had not been sent home so soon.  But I think it would have made more sense to error on the side of caution.